Been a long time since we played indoor soccer with boards……December 2008 I think. Matthew, and Mom and Dad, were looking forward to the game. Schedule makers put us up against a U9 team (we’re U10)….we tell them that might not be a great idea, so, the first game is switched. We end up playing U11s. Who killed a U10 team 13-1 on Saturday.
One big difference in boarded soccer is that the play is a lot faster…the ball doesn’t go out of bounds, it bounces off of a wall. So you have to be like the energizer bunny and keep going and going and going. You also need to have a good first touch….if you can’t control the ball once you get it you aren’t going to have a lot of success.
After the first half of our first game we are down 4-0. Mainly because we were not energizer bunnies….in fact, all of the bad habits from the outdoor fall season seemed to be happening again, just a lot of sitting around hoping the ball would magically appear at their feet so they could do something with it. Not a lot of understanding of what the ball does when you shoot it and miss (big rebounds off of the boards near the goal) and the other team, who had already played a game, seemed to understand perfectly how to deal with that. Not a lot of good first touches…..a lot of swing and misses, a lot of touch the ball and it goes five yards in front of you….to their very aggressive goalie…..
Matthew was just as guilty of the stand-around-syndrome as anyone else for the first five minutes…..but then you could probably hear the ‘click’ sound as things turned on for him in the game. Played defense (when he was in) the whole game; as the switch went from ‘off’ to ‘on’ he started taking possession of the ball and dribbling up field and distributing the ball. The game is 6v6 so there is a lot of room for a defenseman who wants to dribble forward……a LOT of room.
Second half starts. Matthew not back on defense, another boy is, and we give up another goal right away to go down 5-0. The other boy on defense is still in stand-ball-syndrome and completely leaves the guy alone to shoot, and score. Matthew makes a very quick reappearance on the field; that boy goes off.
Matthew was an absolute force in the 2nd half. Always collecting the ball and dribbling up field and then sprinting back to play defense and do it all over again. There’s a corner of the field that you can’t see from the stands….several times Matthew would go into that corner with one of the other players….and you’d wait a moment….and then you’d see Matthew coming out of that corner, alone, with the ball, heading up field. He did it so often that one of the other parents commented “I love when Matthew goes down there…..I can’t see what happens, but I know that sooner or later Matthew’s going to come out of there with the ball!”.
Our kids start figuring out the boards; our first touches start to improve, we start becoming the team that’s first to the ball, and then we finally start scoring… 5-1, 5-2, 5-3, 5-4….5-5. Matthew is on the field a ton and finally waves and calls over to the coach to come out. Takes free kick after free kick; he is really rushing to do this to take advantage of the defense being out of position and the referee has to ask him to slow down repeatedly. His gray shirt is drenched with sweat, both front and back. Learn later he asked to come out (and had to shout this to the coach to get off the field) because he felt like he was going to throw up, and as he came out one of his teammates said “We need you out there Matthew”.
Gets a breather, comes back in. We score with 2 minutes left to go up 6-5….and we hold on to win.
Matthew comes over to see us after the game….completely red-faced, shirt just soaked, front and back. Asked him if his coach (not the TNT coach, just another parent) said anything to him during/after the game. Yup.
“You played a hell of a game”.
